Gordon Melamed (6 Apr. 1927-16 Nov. 2004) was born to Morris and Zena Melamed. The Melamed family was originally from Russia. Morris Melamed served in the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War. He was married to Zena Melamed and they had eleven children, Gordon being the only boy. Morris Melamed owned a dry goods store and the family were active members of the Toronto Jewish community.

Custodial History

Although signed agreements exist for the acquisition of this material, much of this fonds was never assigned an accession number as it was one of the very first donations to the Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region Archives on 11 Dec. 1973, 9 July 1974 and 13 March 1979.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of photographs documenting the extended Melamed family and their friends.

Item is a portrait photograph of Sarah Axelrod in winter clothing, holding a music case. Sarah Axelrod was Gordon Melamed's cousin. The photograph was taken by Ben Goldberg of Empire Studio, who was a friend of the Melamed family.

Name Access

Axelrod, Sarah

Goldberg, Ben

Subjects

Children

Portraits

Repro Restriction

Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.

Item is a photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Goldberg, friends of the Melamed family, taken prior to 1917 at the Empire Studios on Bathurst Street in Toronto. The portrait was originally used for a Rosh Hashanah greeting card.

Name Access

Goldberg, Ben

Subjects

Married people

Portraits

Rosh ha-Shanah cards

Repro Restriction

Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.

Front row, seated on chairs, left to right: Shoshana Dobushin in Hashomer Hatzair uniform (her father was a Jewish bookbinder on Harbord Street); Florence Hurwitz (lived on Wells Hill); Ida Greenberg (family was from Romania); Moshe Frank; Sadie Kanowitch; Goldie Sacks (sister of Jack); Bea Swartz (Rifka) (married Shamai Ogden; borrowed Aunt Frances Shafer's clothes to take photo. The Shafers came from Fort William in the 1920s and lived on Palmerston Blvd).

Second row, standing, left to right: Helen Peltz; [? Torno]; Miriam Parl; Lillian Swartz (sister to Bea); [unknown]; Bessie Melamed (sister to Gordon and Lily Hedich. The family had ten girls and one boy); Miriam Perl.

Back row, standing, left to right: Archie Shulman (lived at Brunswick and Harbord); [unknown]; Abraham Joel Zeldin (his father was chazan. They lived on Euclid Ave.); [Ephraim ?]; [Brother to blonde boy in front row on right (perhaps also killed in WWII)]; [? Fine]; Gordon Donsky.

Notes

Identified by Beatrice Swartz Ogden, 19 April 1995.

Name Access

Dobushin, Shoshana

Donsky, Gordon

Fine

Frank, Moshe

Greenberg, Ida

Hurwitz, Florence

Kanowitch, Sadie

Melamed, Bessie

Ogden, Shamai

Parl, Miriam

Peltz, Helen

Perl, Miriam

Sacks, Goldie

Sacks, Jacob

Shafer, Frances

Shulman, Archie

Swartz, Beatrice

Swartz, Lillian

Toronto Talmud Torah

Torno

Zeldin

Subjects

Students

Repro Restriction

Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.

David Greenberg was an electrical engineer, who married at the age of 19. He later became a chiropracter in Toronto. His father, Louis Greenberg, was a tailor whose shop was located in the Jarvis and Parliament area on Queen Street East. The family originally belonged to the Berkeley Street Synagogue, but there was no minyan for David's Bar Mitzvah and they moved to the McCaul Street Synagogue. David's stepmother's name was Sadie.

Scope and Content

Item is a portrait of David Greenberg, his father Louis Greenberg and his stepmother Sadie. The picture was taken for David's Bar Mitzvah on October 13, 1935.

Name Access

Greenberg, David

Greenberg, Louis

Greenberg, Sadie

Subjects

Bar mitzvah

Families

Portraits, Group

Repro Restriction

Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.

Item is a photograph of a young girl standing in front of the doors to the Ontario Dry Goods & Dress Goods store on Spadina Avenue, which was owned by the Melamed family. The Toronto Jewish City Directory lists the location of the store as 394 Spadina Avenue.

Name Access

Ontario Dry Goods

Subjects

Dry-goods

Storefronts

Repro Restriction

Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.